Now that you have planned your story and selected your characters, the next step in writing a good composition would be to develop these characters. We need to develop the characters in our composition in order to:
make them three-dimensional, and thus more real.
continue to sustain reader interest.
showcase your vocabulary of descriptive words and phrases.
Describing physical features
This is very important. It gives your readers a mental picture, thus enabling them to visualize your characters. This enhances their reading experience and gives them a more vivid impression of your composition.
There are many ways to describe how a character looks:
Facial features
Gurmit was not the best-looking dog in the world. He had crooked ears and lumpy fur. However, his shiny wet nose and droopy brown eyes seemed to melt everyone’s heart.
Clothing and attire
She was the most beautiful lady Kareena had ever seen. Her soft pastel blouse and emerald skirt showed off her fair skin while her sandals added a few inches to her petite frame. Even her glasses, precariously perched at the end of her nose, seemed to enhance her delicate features.
Stature- height, size etc.
George was a greedy boy. His love for good food was apparent from his rotund tummy which strained the buttons of every shirt he had.
Describing Character Traits
Character traits offer readers insight into the people in your composition. They could tell the readers why a character is behaving as he is. It allows you, the writer, to divide ‘good’ characters from the ‘bad’ characters.
Eg. Aaron was an impatient man. He hated to wait for anything. To sit for two hours at a dentist’s office was something he could never bring himself to do.
